Hospitals’ consolidation prompts response from local doctors in “complete shock” | Featured
EL CENTRO – El Centro Regional Medical Center and Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District’s recent choice to consolidate all maternal and child health services has left some local doctors protesting the choice for fear of disrupting services for local residents.
The hospitals made the consolidation announcement via press release sent late the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 20, explaining that by January 9 ECRMC – who has the smaller of the two programs – would stop accepting inpatient Maternal and Child Health Services. This will force Maternal and Child Health Service patients to travel to PMHD, the larger of the two programs, 13.4 miles away in Brawley, and still further for Calexico and other areas of the Imperial Valley.
In a joint statement obtained by the Imperial Valley Press the following morning, ECRMC maternal and child health service doctors Dr. Alfredo Negrete, Dr. Daniel Manjarrez, Dr. Ameen Alshareef, Dr. Vishwa M. Kapoor, and Dr. Luz Tristan accuse the hospital of not serving the community to save money.
“As physicians, we are deeply saddened by the recent turn of events and concerned with the sudden disruption to healthcare to our current and future patients … the decision to indefinitely discontinue pediatric and obstetric services at ECMRC was a complete shock to the healthcare providers at ECRMC,” the statement reads. “The complete closure of pediatrics and obstetrics at ECRMC will, without a doubt, negatively impact patient care and is a disservice to our community.”
“Our community is already underserved and the closure of vital and urgent healthcare services at ECRMC will place patients at further disadvantage and subject them to needless risks,” it reads. “Patients will be forced to travel further to obtain basic-emergency healthcare services for infants, children, and expectant mothers.”
“Additionally, patient-physician relationships will be fractured as most doctors cannot feasibly provide hospital services countywide,” per the statement.
ECRMC Chief Executive Officer Scott Phillips disagreed with the doctors in an interview on Dec. 21, saying instead that this is a move to create a stronger maternal and child health service program in the Valley.
According to Phillips, both of the current programs are considered very small, with ECRMC having less than 1,000 births per year and PMHD averaging approximately 1,700 births per year.
Phillips said the consolidation of the two programs would create a large enough program that PMH would be able to attract specialty maternal and child health service professionals, such as neonatal doctors.
“If we have any serious issues, we have to transfer them out of the hospital anyways … this way, we could greatly reduce how many people we have to transfer to San Diego,” Phillips said.
Phillips went on to acknowledge that this move will save the hospital money since the hospital loses nearly $10 million on their maternal and child health services program.
He also went on to guarantee that despite the closure of the inpatient programs, the hospital will not close or adjust any of the outpatient programs at their other offices and clinics.
Additionally, Phillips said he is anticipating no job losses within the hospital, saying that staff from the maternal and child health services department will have their choice of joining the PMH team or moving into a different department within ECRMC.
“We will simply not bring in as many travel nurses, who cost us around $300,000 per nurse per year anyway,” Phillips said.
The one thing both groups agreed about — though they disagreed whether it was a good or a bad — was the speed at which this consolidation is taking place.
Phillips proudly proclaimed that discussions on the consolidation only began just a few short weeks ago, and that within a month of making the choice the hospitals were already ready to move forward.
ECRMC’s doctors disagreed that this was a good thing, feeling that moving forward with consolidating the two programs without discussing it with staff or the community showed a lack of concern for their thoughts.
“No opportunity was provided to the residents of our community and the long-term, local healthcare providers to voice our concerns or to advocate for patient care…,” the doctors wrote in their statement.
“As healthcare professionals, it is our fondest wish that our community can coalesce in order to consider and provide alternative solutions to once again provide our community with much needed services in a cost efficient but equitable manner,” it reads.
“Everyone understands that financial constraints routinely impact decision-making in all areas of life, but unilateral decisions that blindside a community should not ever be an option,” per the doctors’ statement.
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